Preps Plus.

Spring scrum: Rugby catching on in Chicago

Where else, for instance, would a team (or "side," in rugby terms) lose 45-0 and call it a victory?

Where else would players engage in an hour of nonstop contact with neither helmets nor pads?

And where else would the winning team give a loud "hip, hip, hooray" three times for both its vanquished opponent and the referee?

Rugby somehow combines bruising hits with good sportsmanship, both of which De La Salle and St. Ignatius displayed Friday behind the New City YMCA. That's St. Ignatius' home "pitch," and while it pitched a shutout Friday no one really seemed to care.

Five weeks ago, after all, De La Salle didn't even have a team, and this was its competitive debut. St. Ignatius also is an expansion team, but it got an earlier start than its opponent and had two scrimmages and a match before Friday.

The difference in experience as well as in team speed turned the contest into a bit of a rout.

"But it was more a win than a loss today," De La Salle senior Mike Staszak insisted afterward. "Today was just for experience.

"This was awesome."

Staszak competes in football and track, which means he is having a busy spring. Rugby, however, is the first De La Salle athletic team for senior Nick McKinney.

"I just like hard-hitting action," he said. "It's complicated to learn but fun to do."

Staszak probably described rugby best, calling it "a combination of football, soccer and every other sport put together." Teams of 15 players each attempt to place down an oblong ball in an opponent's goal, advancing it by running, kicking and lateral passes.

Among the highlights are "scrums," like a jump ball in basketball except in this case the ball is rolled between opposing masses of eight players who lock arms and fight the other side for it like ants attacking a sugar cube.

Chicago-area high school rugby started in the spring of 1998 with four teams and now has 13. All are club teams and some, like Naperville, draw players from more than one school.

The teams are part of the Chicago Area Rugby Football Union, which has approximately 40 teams, youth through adult. The high school teams compete in Black and Blue divisions, and their seasons culminate in a championship tournament in May.

"Rugby has really taken off as a spring sport for high school kids," said Mt. Carmel coach Jack Cushing, who helped start the sport among the high schools. "They're the ones driving it."

Just about every high school coach in CARFU plays or played the sport, loves it enough to coach for free and is trying to hook a new generation of players on it. De La Salle coach Mike Wylde, 27, played rugby at St. Olaf College and was eager to help form a team when students indicated an interest in the sport.

Rugby's appeal rests not just in the competition itself, he said, but also in the camaraderie that exists among players everywhere.

"Rugby atmosphere is a lot more social than in football but still really competitive," Wylde said. "You join a brotherhood you stay in till you die.

"It's a gentleman's sport."

Players prove the latter with their post-match parties, which are known for their beer consumption. High school parties stick to soft drinks and pizza, but the object is pretty much the same.

"If you're going to teach that it's a gentleman's sport, you have to show players how to interact with opponents afterward in a gentlemanly manner," said Wylde, an assistant football coach and head hockey coach at De La Salle.

That interaction traditionally includes rugby songs. Given the off-key rendition of the school fight song De La Salle's players produced as Friday's match began, their rugby parties could get ugly fast.

St. Ignatius played a B side (junior varsity) match against another school Friday after its victory over De La Salle, so De La Salle didn't stick around for the party. That meant it would have to wait for its first rugby party and next chance to assault innocent eardrums.

It seemed to make De La Salle's rugby debut a total loss, but nothing could kick the smile off Wylde's face.

"I had a blast," he said. "It was a lot of fun.

"I'm not discouraged by this. We have lots of talent and great kids. We'll keep plugging away."